Labour Party (Norway)

Labour Party (Norway)

The Labour Party (Norwegian: Arbeiderpartiet, A/Ap) is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway.

The party were members of Comintern, a Communist organisation between 1918 and 1923.

The Norwegian Labour Party is officially committed to social-democratic ideals. Its slogan since the 1930s has been "work for everyone", and the party seeks a strong welfare state, funded through taxes and duties. During the last 20 years, the party has included more of the principles of a social market economy in its policy, allowing for privatisation of government-held assets and services and reducing income tax progressivity, following the wave of economic liberalisation in the 1980s. The Labour Party profiles itself as a progressive party that subscribes to cooperation on a national as well as international level. Its youth wing is the Workers' Youth League.

Founded in 1887, the party steadily increased in support until it became the largest party in Norway in 1927 – a position it has held ever since. This year also saw the consolidation of conflicts surrounding the party during the 1920s following its membership in the Comintern from 1919 to 1923. It formed its first government in 1928, and has led the government for all but 16 years since 1935. From 1945 to 1961, the party had an absolute majority in the Norwegian parliament--the only time this has ever happened in Norwegian history. During this time, Norway was casually referred to as a "one party state". The domination by the Labour Party, during the 1960s and early 1970s, was initially broken by competition from the left, primarily from the Socialist People's Party. From the end of the 1970s however, the party started to lose voters to the right, leading to a turn to the right for the party under Gro Harlem Brundtland during the 1980s. In 2001 the party achieved its worst electoral results since 1924, forcing it to commit to a co-operation agreement with other parties in order to form a majority government.